I am a new father and, like most new fathers, I am a proud papa! I love watching my son take in this world. He is just about to make the transition from crawling to walking. He is so close! It’s been fascinating watching him calculate his next move, to figure out how many steps from the rocking chair to the couch. He has always been curious; I am sure all children are curious but it has revived in me a sense of my own curiosity. I’ve been thinking, “how much have I really challenged myself lately?”
To be fair, there has been little sleep over the last thirteen months but where has my sense of wonderment gone? Where is my drive to learn more and to try new things? Where is my curiosity?
We all find comfort in routine, in doing things the way we think they should be done! But sometimes the world shifts and shakes us from those routines. The world is always changing and always evolving. We need to do the same.
My son has this great thing he does when I’m holding him on my shoulder; he cranes his neck around as if to look around a distant, invisible corner. It is as if he knows there is so much information to gather in this new world he inhabits. I feel like I am doing a little bit of that too right now; I am craning my neck to try to look around to this distant and invisible future. By doing that, I am standing still, I am not moving forward. I am stagnant.
When I put my son down from my shoulder he immediately forgets that distant, invisible corner. He is focused on his next move, the beautiful things he can discover right here and right now. He is pulling himself up on the chair and surveying the land. He finds something new, something that may have never existed before in his mind and slowly and courageously moves to it.
How can we find new ways of moving forward? How can we find the courage to be curious? To learn more and to create new things that may have never existed in our minds before? It does take baby steps, but the important thing is that we take that first one – that first glorious, wobbly step.
Comments are closed.